


This Time Around....

by LadyShadowphyre



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Cycles of Fate, Destiny is a Bitch, Fenrir!Coulson, Gen, Hel!Darcy, Jormungadr!Fury, Loki Does What He Wants, Loki Remembers Everything, Ragnarok, avengerkink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-22 16:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki remembers every Ragnarok cycle. This time around, he's going to do his best to be a hero the best way he knows how.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from Avengerkink: "It's said Loki is cursed to be the only one to remember every Ragnarok cycle. That got me thinking of the movie Groundhog day. Trapped in an endless cycle.
> 
> "So what if it's just this cycle that Loki is the god of mischief and lies? He's just screwing around in this one since he knows he can do something else entirely in the next one. What if he's like 'screw this I'll be the god of flowers now' in another cycle? Maybe he decides to be savior of the universe next; or he joins the avengers. Does he try to break the cycle perhaps?"
> 
> This is what popped into my head.

**T** HE BATTLE RAGED AROUND HIM, bodies blocking his line of sight. Everything was proceeding as it was foretold, no matter how much he'd tried to buck the system... God of Fire, once. God of Light. He'd tried being a Goddess one cycle, but it had ended badly for her, and the less he thought of it the better. He'd tried to be the God of Truth this time, but it seemed that Cassandra's Curse held strong over him, for he'd been thought the God of Lies instead.

 _I'll fix it somehow,_ he thought, whirling to engage the warrior who'd tried to sneak up on him-- Thor. _I promise, brother... I'll find a way to fix it. To help the mortals you've called friends in this cycle the way they helped you...._

He held that thought even as Mjolnir struck him down and he fell to be impaled on a fallen spear.

_I'll help them all be strong again...._

 

 **T** HE DARK-HAIRED BOY HUDDLED IN THE SHADOWS, knees drawn up to his chest, face buried in his folded arms as his shoulders shook. Loki felt his chest tighten and shed the cloak of shadows that hid him from sight, kneeling down beside the boy and placing a hand on his bowed head.

"Shhh, shhh, child... everything will be alright," he murmured gently to the boy, who looked up sharply in shock. No fear, curiously, but then this one had always held a courage in his heart that few mortals could boast.

"Who're you?" the boy asked, eying him warily. Loki smiled slightly.

"I am Loki," he said simply. The dark brown eyes widened.

"Loki, like the Norse god of lost children?" the boy asked. Loki felt his smile widen slightly and dipped his head.

"The same," he confirmed, watching as the boy processed that. So bright, even at such a young age.... He'd known, remembered this, but it was still so good to _see_ that shining intelligence.

"...Are you going to take me away?" the child asked after a moment. "The myths say... you guide kids who're lost home, and rescue kids who're hurt, but you don't come to everyone... why me?"

"Because you cried out to me in your heart," Loki found himself saying, stroking back the dark hair. "Do you wish to come away with me? Or shall I guide you home again?"

The boy blinked, startled by the choice, but frowned slightly, clearly thinking about it.

"Home," he decided eventually. "Dad may be gone a lot and Mom may be... well, _Mom_ , but... they're my family, right?"

"That is correct," Loki agreed, smiling a little. "Though I would hope you will remember that family is not always in the bonds of blood, but also in the bonds forged between friends. The family you choose for yourself."

"Is that what you do, when you take kids away?" the boy asked. "Make a new family?"

"Sometimes," Loki admitted, thinking of a little girl with red hair and a little boy with keen eyes and keener aim. "Sometimes a child has needs that those around them cannot fill."

"Can I meet your family sometime?" the boy asked curiously, and Loki surprised himself with a chuckle.

"You will, young one," he said, eyes sparkling with a touch of mischief that remained from his past. "But for now, I will see you home as you have asked."

"Okay," the boy said, accepting the hand up. "So, I can see you again, right? If I called you once, I can do it again?"

"You can always call on me, Anthony," Loki said solemnly, nodding.

"Ugh, can you call me Tony?" young Tony Stark asked, scrunching up his face. "'Anthony' makes me feel like I'm in trouble for something."

"Tony it is," Loki chuckled, smiling faintly.

_All I know is that fear has got to go...  
This time around...._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title and italicized quote are from "This Time Around" by Hanson.


	2. Chapter 2

**S** HE DIDN'T KNOW WHY HER FATHER HAD INSISTED THAT SHE AND HER BROTHER RETURN TO MIDGARD, but Natalia had recognized the look in Loki's eyes when he'd told her. Sadness, a pain that could not be eased, and fearsome knowledge that what was coming would be hard, but could not be avoided lest the Realms fall into eternal chaos. She held her questions and hugged her Father tightly, stepping back only to let Clint do the same before they both turned and stepped through the Pathway that had opened for them.

The large dark-skinned man that greeted them reminded Natalia of Heimdall, though Clint whispered in her mind that the eyepatch made him look like a reverse-coloured All-Father. They kept their silence until the other men - agents of SHIELD, they were told - were dismissed, leaving only the dark man and another man who looked like he could melt into a crowd at a moment's notice. Only then, when the door closed and the four were alone, did the dark man relax and remove his eyepatch to reveal a single golden eye with a slitted pupil surrounded by scarred skin and pebbly black scales.

"Jor?!" Clint gaped, staring at the familiar eye of his adoptive brother.

"You didn't think Mom would send you here alone without your family, did you?" Jormungandr asked, one eyebrow raised, as the man beside him broke into a distinctly wolfish grin.

"Welcome to Earth," Fenrir said, winking. Clint and Natalia laughed in relief and embraced their brothers.

 

 **N** ONE OF THEM COULD BRING THEMSELVES TO SMILE AS THEY WATCHED, held back by the presence of mortals, while General Ross ordered his troops to fire on the giant force of rage that Dr Bruce Banner had become. Even with her heart aching for the man, Natalia found herself analyzing his behaviour, studying how he reacted to things, lashing out in response to pain, roaring in confusion and anger.

"He's like a child," she whispered. "A lost and hurting child." Beside her Clint jerked and Fenrir - Coulson, Phil - turned to look at her with a spark of hope.

"Talia, you're a genius!" he said fiercely. He looked at Jormungandr, Director Fury, for permission, who gave a nod, then looked at Clint. "Can you get to him? Tell him what he needs to do?"

"I can try," Clint said, studying the pattern of soldiers spread out around the one they were calling the Hulk. "Not gonna be easy with those bullets flying around."

"We'll have to risk it," Talia said, adjusting her wristguards and readying her grappling line. "Over and under?"

"Race ya," Clint offered with a grin, and Talia grinned back.

"Go!" Phil barked, and they went, leaping off the building in tandem and free-falling several stories. Clint's bow came up at the same time Talia's arm moved and their grapples fired in time, arrow and bolo landing on separate buildings as they swung down, narrowly dodging bullets and furious yells from other soldiers. Neither paused, running flat out, Clint's circus training and Talia's early assassin programming serving them well as they ducked, dodged, flipped and wove in between the soldiers in their race to get to the Hulk. Clint was intercepted by a soldier and had to trade blows while shouting he was with SHIELD, which let Talia get ahead, vaulting over an upturned car and swinging up onto one massive green arm.

"Hulk!" she called, not shouting but speaking loudly to be heard over the gunfire. "Bruce! Call to Loki! He can help you!" Hulk roared again, nearly knocking Talia to the ground, and she flattened herself against him, arms wrapping around his neck in a desperate bid to stay on. "Please!" she yelled. "We want to help you! Let Loki help you!" She cried out as a stray bullet struck her, grazing her side, and clung tighter to Hulk as he roared again.

" **LOKI**!" Hulk yelled, his voice echoing over the din of gunfire.

"I'm here, child."

The wind picked up, harsh and cold in a way Talia hadn't felt since she'd been taken in by her Father in Russia. The gunfire dropped away, some soldiers dropping their weapons, others only lowering them. Talia could just barely see the apoplectic face of General Ross as Fury shoved him down and Phil trained his tazer on the man. Talia felt the rippling muscles under her shift and bunch, and she lifted her head.

"Father," she breathed in relief, spying the green-clad figure hovering in the air before Hulk, one hand outstretched to stroke the sweaty mop of dark hair.

 _You are wise, my Talia,_ Father whispered affectionately in her mind, even as Loki looked upon Bruce Banner's alter self with sadness and care. "You're safe now, child. I will not let them harm you."

" **Hurts** ," Hulk rumbled, shifting again.

"Show me," Loki said softly, and floated to each wound he was directed to, doubtlessly using magic to draw out the bullets so that the wounds could close. Talia patted Hulk on the shoulder and carefully slid down to lean against his leg, unsurprised when Clint dropped into a crouch beside her and started poking her side.

"Quit that, I'm fine," Talia murmured, batting at his hands lightly. "Oh, hang on..." She shifted away from the leg she was leaning on as it began to shrink, green giving way to pink flesh until Bruce Banner stood swaying in the street in tattered clothes. Loki landed before him as Talia sidled closer to support the man and Clint moved to support him on the other side. Banner flinched from them at first, before seeming to recognize Talia and leaning into her a little, wary eyes on Loki.

" _Why_?" he asked hoarsely, voice ragged from his alter self's roars and a lifetime of pain unsoothed.

"You did not know to call on me before this day," Loki said, face etched with pain and sorrow, "and so I could not find you when you were hurt as a child. For that, I am deeply sorry."

"But... I'm not a child anymore," Banner said, confused.

"You are and you aren't," Clint said from Banner's other side, startling the man. Clint grinned sheepishly. "C'mon, who isn't a child wanting comfort in their darkest hour?"

"The Other Guy is a child?" Banner asked, mouth twisting in an odd expression.

"No child is truly a monster," Loki said solemnly, touching Banner's half-bared shoulder, and Talia could see the flash of pain in the man's eyes that mirrored her Father's. "No matter what anyone else might say."

"...So what happens now?" Banner asked, looking confused and resigned to his confusion. His eyes strayed beyond Loki to General Ross and he cringed, making Talia tighten her arm around him. Loki smiled gently, squeezing the shoulder he held.

"It's time to come home."

_For ev'ry child I comfort,_  
 _For ev'ry soul I save,_  
 _There falls a silent shadow_  
 _O'er a small and quiet grave._

_No comfort were they offered;_  
 _No arms to hold them near,_  
 _For they knew not to call to me,_  
 _And so I could not hear._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem at the end is by me.


	3. Chapter 3

_**T** HE AIR IS CRISP AND COOL, moreso than usual of late, and Loki has taken to leaving off his heavier, high-necked leathers to let his body take in the natural coolness of the atmosphere. He knows it sometimes bothers Thor's friends to see the second prince so easy and comfortable in temperatures that send them scurrying for their furs, but he refuses to allow the fear and loathing that drove his past self mad with self-hatred to find purchase in his soul this time and, while not truly embracing his heritage, he does not shun the gifts it affords him._

_"Brother!" Thor calls to him, and Loki reaches out and catches the discus thrown to him easily, a faint smile tugging at his lips at a memory from a lifetime ago of a broader disc in brighter colours, but he dismisses the thought and sends the discus flying on towards Fandral, grinning as the foppish young man has to twist and jump to catch it._

_{{"Loki! Loki, help!"}}_

_The cry reverberates through his head and down his spine, face turning pale as he registers the plea, the **prayer** , and feels his gut clench in dread. "Baldur..."_

_With a cry of his baby brother's name that instantly draws the attention of the others, Loki latches onto the echoing thread of prayer connecting him to Baldur and drags himself forcibly through the Void to his baby brother's side, the air cracking sharply from the displaced atmosphere as he forces his body into the space too fast. Baldur is there, as is his assailant, and Loki is quick to dispatch the dwarven warrior with a blow to the head before he turns to his brother._

_The sight is grim, and sends Loki's mind reeling with a hundred other memories, some so close to this that he feels he will be ill from the realization that this thing, this is something he cannot change, something borne of Destiny instead of Fate, and it hurts more than any physical pain. For there Baldur lies, pale and bleeding from a hundred tiny cuts besides the stab wound in his shoulder, and Loki can see the tattered remains where a dwarven shrikestone has sent the clump of mistletoe exploding outwards into hundreds of tiny splinters. Cursing under his breath that he has not yet managed to perfect the teleportation of more than just himself, Loki drops to his knees and lifts Baldur into his arms. "Hold tight to me, brother."_

_"Loki...." Baldur whimpers, arms going around his brother's neck and clinging there. "It hurts...."_

_"I know... I'm sorry, my brother," Loki whispers. Clutching Baldur to his chest, he leaps into the air and flies, forcing his magic to carry him swiftly to the palace and Eir's Healing Rooms, though he knows with a sick dread in his soul that it is already too late. He lands in the courtyard and Eir, alerted by Thor to his flight and by Heimdall to Baldur's plight, meets them there and takes charge, sweeping away to the Healing Room with his baby brother. Only Sif stops by Loki's side as he sinks to the ground in shaking exhaustion._

_"You did well to move so quickly," she says, awkward in her praise as ever towards him, but he can feel no satisfaction in earning her reluctant regard._

_"Would that it be enough," he says, weary and pained. He glances at her and forces down his pride. "Help me stand? The dwarf that attacked him remains in the clearing, and the All-Father will need to send guards to collect him lest we lose the chance to learn if he worked alone or at another's behest."_

_Sif's lips thin in displeasure, but she nods and offers him her hand. He clasps her forearm instead, one warrior to another, a respect he is always mindful to give her despite their disagreements, and allows her to haul him to his feet and steady him as they make for the Healing Rooms together. Odin is grim-faced when he hears the news, but dispatches two guards to the clearing on Loki's word and takes his son's report of the scene with stoic solemnity. When his words run out, Loki remains with him in silence, Sif at one side, Thor at the other, and watches the door to the Healing Room with some vain hope that this could still be averted._

_The hope is dashed when Eir emerges, her face calm and eyes sad. "You did well to bring him so quickly, my prince," she says to Loki softly, even as Frigga chokes back a sob. "Though the mistletoe is in his blood and we cannot draw it out, he will at least be comfortable."_

_"Is there nothing to be done?" Thor demands, hands clenching and unclenching around Mjolnir._

_"There is the dwarf," Sif suggests to her friend, and Thor turns quickly to the All-Father. Loki tunes out the argument he knows will come, leaving Sif's side to stand with his mother. Frigga's eyes are wet, but her cheeks are dry, and Loki knows that she knew and hoped just as he had._

_"I will sit with him, Mother," he says softly to her, touching her shoulder. At her look of surprise, he tries and manages a weak half-smile. "If ever there was a child in need..."_

_"Of course," Frigga says softly, her hand lifting to cover Loki's and squeeze gently. "Your wisdom does you much credit, my son."_

_"Wisdom learned at my mother's knee," he teases gently, and is rewarded by her smile. Bowing to her and nodding to Eir, he slips into the room. The candle is lit and the shutters closed, but Baldur still looks far too pale against the bedclothes, and Loki aches to take his pain away despite knowing Eir has done her best already._

_"Loki?" Baldur calls, and Loki steps closer, sitting on the edge of the bed beside his brother._

_"I'm here, child," he starts to say, then stops and shakes his head. " **Brother**. I am here."_

_"It doesn't hurt anymore," Baldur says softly, looking up at Loki with eyes too bright. Loki feels his own eyes sting, but forces back the tears and strokes back his brother's hair._

_"You will never hurt again, soon," he says, sorrow colouring his tone despite his efforts. Baldur smiles a little, weakly, but it fades soon to a troubled frown._

_"I'm afraid, brother," he confesses quietly._

_"Most people fear death because it is unknown," Loki offers awkwardly, still stroking Baldur's hair. "But you need not have fear. Your niece is waiting for you beyond the veil, and you know Hela will take good care of you."_

_"Will you and Thor come visit me?" Baldur asks, innocent as the child he is with no real understanding of the tensions and politics of having Loki's daughter rule the Realm of the Dead._

_"When we can," Loki temporizes, hoping that Odin will not forbid them this promise and make a liar of him in yet another life. "You must teach Hela all of the new games we've learned, so that we can all four play together."_

_"I will," Baldur promises, blinking. His chest hitches, breathing stuttering, and Loki feels his pulse falter beneath his fingertips._

_"Sleep now, little brother," Loki says softly, willing the knot in his throat to loose his voice. "Hela will be there when you wake."_

_"...love you, Loki...." Baldur whispers, eyes drooping slowly closed._

_"And I you, brother," Loki says, leaning forward to press a kiss to his brother's forehead as the Life fades from his body. "We all love you very much."_

"You are a selfish, cruel, and greedy boy, who cares only for battle!" Odin snarled at the quailing Thor, and the scene looked so familiar that Loki wondered if he hadn't stepped back a life... but no, he wore only the briefest armour, prepared this time for how the cold of Jotunheim had invigorated him and given him strength. Knowing any protest he might make would be rebuffed by Odin in this moment, Loki stayed silent, watching, and felt something tugging at his magic as Odin stripped Thor of his powers and cast him down the bifrost to Midgard before hurling the now-bespelled Mjolnir after him.

"...Will you forbid me from answering him should he call for me, Father?" he said finally, drawing Odin's attention. "If he is truly still a child, I cannot forsake his prayers."

"...No, my son," Odin said finally, the anger draining from him and leaving him looking old and tired. "It is your right to answer the prayers of those under your care."

"Thank you, Father," Loki said, bowing. He saw that Odin was noticing his choice of attire, and managed a slight smile for the older god. "Some secrets are too difficult to keep when careless tongues wag around inquisitive ears," he said by way of explanation.

"...You know, then," Odin said, looking if anything even more weary. "I would have spared you that pain."

"The greater pain would have been letting me grow up to believe myself a monster upon hearing the truth," Loki argued, but gently. "How else could I come to be called the patron god of lost children were I not one myself?"

"You will always be my son, Loki," Odin said finally, a brief smile flickering across his face, and Loki fought the urge to beam at him, confining his expression to a quiet smile.

"And you will always be my Father," he said, vowing to keep that in his heart alongside the love of and for his children as his shield against the darkness.

 

 **D** ARCY HADN'T MEANT TO TAZE HER UNCLE, not really. Of course, with the bifrost opening randomly in the middle of the New Mexico desert, she was a bit jumpy, and with the way he was ranting at the sky and receiving no answer, the anger in his voice and movements, well, better safe than sorry. The fact that her tazer actually dropped him was the biggest clue that Something Was Wrong.

While Jane was talking to the hospital staff, Darcy retreated to a chair and sent off a rapid text to the phone number she'd been sent for getting in touch with her siblings here on Midgard. _"Thor here. No pwrs. WTF?"_

A moment later she received an answer. _"Clint and Fen on their way. Keep an eye on Uncle. Be safe. -J"_

Well, if Jor was sending Fen and Clint to check up on things, all Darcy could really do was wait. She glanced at Jane, then sighed and settled back into her chair and hoped her brothers' arrival would come with explanations. With another glance at Jane, she sent off another text, this time to a more familiar number. _"Ur bro Thor's here. Family reunion time. Wish u could come."_

Two minutes later, her phone buzzed with Baldur's reply. _"Me too, Hela."_

Darcy smiled slightly and cleared the message before closing her eyes to wait for Jane to be ready to head back to their make-shift lab. So much for a quiet vacation as a student....


	4. Chapter 4

**T** HE HOUSE WAS DARK IN THE WAKE OF RHODEY'S DEPARTURE WITH THE MARK II ARMOUR, lights shattered and dead with bits of bulbs strewn about the floor amid the wreckage of wood and metal and glass. No doubt the place was totaled, at least on the upper floors, and Tony felt a brief pang of relief that the lab - and the small shrine he kept in a closet - were still undamaged, before he wondered why it even mattered. At the rate the palladium was spreading, he'd be dead in a matter of days and whoever found the shrine in the clearing out of his effects wouldn't understand its importance.

It wasn't even that he was afraid to die. Death held no real mystery for him, after meeting Loki and hearing stories of his brother Baldur and daughter Hela who ruled the Realms of the Dead with kind hands and fair judgement. He didn't even mind not dying a warrior's death and going to Valhalla. It was that there was still so much left to _do_. So much he could still offer the world if he had the chance, with arc reactor clean energy and IronTech water filtration systems only the start! He wasn't ready to give up, but he just... couldn't see a way out.

 _Loki, I could sure use your guidance right about now,_ he thought tiredly, though without much hope of an answer. Loki was the patron god of lost _children_ after all, and despite _Vanity Fair's_ speculation on a Peter Pan complex, he was an adult and should act like one, even if all he wanted to do was curl up in familiar arms and cry.

"Oh, Tony..."

The voice curled across his palladium-riddled mind, clearing some of the fog caused by the metal and alcohol, and he tried to focus on the source. Gentle green eyes looked through the suit's optic sensors and into his before the pieces of the suit began to come apart, carefully and methodically, until he lay on the floor before Loki with only the Arc reactor between them for light.

"How?" he asked weakly, "You only come to..."

"I come to all who call me, Tony," Loki said kindly, brushing the sweatsoaked hair from Tony's face the way he had once when Tony was eight and sick with scarlet fever. "For who is not a child in their darkest hour?"

"Guess this is pretty dark," Tony admitted, looking away.

"You have fallen quite far this time, Tony," Loki acknowledged, "but not so far that you cannot get back up. Never so far as that."

"What can I do?" Tony pleaded. "What's there left that I haven't tried?"

"You asked me once if you could meet my family," Loki reminded him, smiling when Tony looked up in surprise. "You have met three of their number already, though you did not know them as such and they were unaware that you would know them if they came to you with their true names."

"Natalie," Tony guessed, naming the red-haired woman who'd become Pepper's personal assistant after he made his entirely too competent and qualified assistant the CEO of Stark Industries.

"Natalia, yes," Loki confirmed. "Also Jormungandr and Fenrir, though you would recognize them better as Director Nicholas Fury and Agent Philip Coulson."

"I'll be damned," Tony muttered, blinking. Loki chuckled.

"Not today," he quipped, startling a laugh out of Tony. "For now, I believe it is time to get up off the floor and see if we can track down Jormungandr for you." He paused and raised an eyebrow. "Did you have to be so heavy-handed in your flirting with my daughter?"

"I thought she was a corporate spy," Tony muttered sheepishly, ducking his head even as he gripped the offered forearm. Loki actually grinned at him.

"Fair enough," the god said, and hauled him to his feet.

 

 **C** LINT TRIED NOT TO GLANCE AT FEN-- _Phil_ , he reminded himself, too much as they led the initial convoy out to the crash site near Puento Antiguo, New Mexico. His big brother cum SHIELD handler had been more silent than usual, even with the presence of mortal agents around them, brows drawn in thought. Clint managed to last for one hundred and forty-three miles before he broke.

"Stark okay when you left?" he asked, guessing at what the subject preoccupying Phil might be. He'd always seemed torn between whimpering and snarling every time he'd come from meeting the billionaire before, but this time....

"Mm," Phil hummed non-committally, then switched over to an odd mix of Croatian, Macedonian, and Old Norse that the Lokison Clan used to speak privately here on Midgard. "He's one of Mom's favourites, apparently."

"...Well, damn," Clint said in the same blend of languages, blinking. "Didn't see that one coming, though I guess I should have. He's got the Look."

"You can hardly expect to notice something you aren't around often enough to see," Phil said, glancing at Clint, who shrugged.

"Observation's my thing, brother, you know that," he said quietly. "I don't like the idea of having failed Dad without realizing it."

"You haven't-- _we_ haven't failed," Phil disagreed. "We just didn't have all the facts."

"But now we do?"

"Now we do." Phil gave a slight bark of a laugh, albeit quietly. "Well, more than we had before. Jor and Talia will keep him from dying while we meet up with Hel and find out what in the Realms is going on with our Uncle."

"Got her number?" Clint asked, taking the slip of paper Phil proffered and digging out his cell. _"En route 2 PA, NM. Where r u? -C"_

A moment later, he got a text back. _"Driving back w/ uncle knocked out. Jane keeps hitting him w/ the van."_

 _"On purpose?"_ he sent back, forcibly keeping his expression even.

_"IDK. No pwrs, still. Tazed him by acc, went down like a rock."_

"Damn," Clint muttered, catching Phil's eye and showing him the text. Phil raised his eyebrows.

"We'll see what the situation is when we get there," the wolf in human skin decided, looking troubled. Clint nodded and sent back to Hela, _"Be there soon, sis. ILU"_

_"ILU2, bro. C U l8r!"_


	5. Chapter 5

**I** T WAS STRANGELY LIGHT IN THE ROOM, a light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and Steve Rogers closed his eyes again before slowly opening them, not quite sure of how he was opening his eyes at all. He remembered.... the fight with Schmidt... the cube... the plane... Peggy's voice promising a date.... the crash....

Why was he awake? Was he dead? Was this heaven?

"Not quite heaven," said a soft voice near his side. "But then, you are not quite dead yet, Steven."

"My Lady..." Steve whispered, shocked, and turned his head slowly towards that familiar voice. And sure enough, there She was, dressed as he'd seen her long ago the night of his mother's death in dark blue and green with a pale blue cloth over Her hair. She smiled softly at him, Her green eyes kind and sad, and he felt as if he was back in his pre-serum body, small and scrawny and so alone.

"Never alone, Steven," She said gently, reaching out to brush back his hair. "You carry me with you, just as you carry all those you have loved in your heart. Just as you will carry others, in time, and they will carry you."

"Others?" he asked, startled. "I don't understand, Lady, I... aren't I dead?"

"Not quite," the Lady said, lips twitching into a smile more wry than soft. "Not yet. Even now, your body is being thawed from the ice that has held you preserved, and soon you will wake in truth to find the world... much changed."

"How changed, Lady?" Steve asked, biting his lip in uncertainty. "Did... the war...."

"Some may argue that the side you fought for won," She told him. "Others may argue than no one truly won, for all sides took great loss. However, few remain who remember it as you do, and they are no longer young."

"...How long as it been, my Lady?" Steve asked, dreading the answer even as he forced himself to ask, to hear.

"Sixty-nine years have passed since you crashed down and saved the people of New York," the Lady said solemnly. "Give or take a few months. You may find that your fame as 'Captain America' has only grown since then."

"Do I have to wake up?" Steve grimaced, then ducked his head at her reproving look. "I'm sorry. Did... is anyone still...?"

"Alive?" the Lady filled in. "A few. Much of your team survived the war, and their children and grandchildren still live. Your friend Howard had a son, though I fear there was not much of the man who was your friend left in him by then." She sounded so sad, so knowing, that he voiced the question before he realized he was speaking.

"He called you? You came to him, to...?" he trailed off, realizing he didn't know the boy - and he'd be a man, now, if it had really been so many years - didn't even know the name of his one-time friend's son.

"To Tony, yes," She said with a faint smile. "Although he knows me by a different name and face."

"A different....?" Steve blinked, confused. The Lady brushed back his hair again.

"It is given to me to take the form most comfortable to those who call upon me," She said, gesturing with one hand to Her current appearance. "You see me as the Lady of your Catholic Church, new though it is by my reckoning, and so I have appeared to you. To Tony, and to many of my charges, I look... somewhat different."

Steve considered that, frowning pensively. He supposed he'd known, on some level, that the Lady who came to comfort him as a child was not exactly the Holy Mother, though motherly She was to him. He'd wanted to ask the church pastor, once, if the Holy Mother ever came to Her followers, but something had held him back, and now he wondered if it hadn't been that strange knowing that it was something personal, private, something to keep to himself because--

"I am no less real now than I was then, Steven," the Lady said, startling him out of his thoughts, and he flushed.

"I didn't mean..." he started.

"I know," she said, stroking back his hair again before drawing back. "You are much like Tony in your desire to question the world."

"Who are You to him?" Steve asked at length, blushing more darkly at her raised eyebrows. "I mean... You said he knows You differently...."

"Ah," the Lady said, sitting back and smiling gently. "Before the rise of Christianity and the founding of the Catholic Church, I was known best as Loki Odinson."

"The Winter King?!" Steve blurted out, startled. "The other Commandos used to tell stories... but I just thought they were just old myths!"

"All myths have some root in fact," the Lady - _Loki_ \- said kindly. She tilted her head to one side. "Although I'm not quite sure where the title of 'Winter King' came from."

"I think... Bucky started calling You that after hearing how often 'icy winds' and the 'chill of early winter' showed up in the stories before You appeared," Steve admitted, feeling a pang at the thought of his best friend. "Is... is Bucky...?"

"He is not yet beyond the Veil," came the startling answer, and Loki smiled at Steve's open-mouthed shock. "You may have my daughter's aid, should you choose to search for him upon waking. She knew him as Yasha, and he gave her into my care when others would have broken her."

"How will I find her?" Steve asked, his mind spinning with a thousand other questions he could not seem to put into words.

"She will find you, Steven," the Lady Loki said, standing, Her form shifting and changing to that of a dark-haired man in dark blue shirt and trousers with a dark green cloak, His face a touch thinner than Hers, but no less kind. "Now close your eyes, my child. You will be waking soon."

"...thank you... lady..." Steve mumbled, eyes drooping wearily, suddenly quite willing to close his eyes and sleep if it meant waking onto a new world where Bucky was alive and waiting for him to find him with the help of a Saint's (God's?) daughter. He felt the familiar hand stroke back his hair and cool lips brush his forehead before drifting away from the room that was lit from everywhere and nowhere. He thought he felt his nose itching from far off, and lifted suddenly heavy fingers to scratch at it, eyes fluttering open again onto another room, white ceiling and blue walls and a radio playing a baseball game that, to him, was two years ago.

 

**L** OKI SIGHED QUIETLY AS HE PAUSED, still out of phase with the mortal plane, and rubbed his eyes. He knew, through his magic's connection to his brother, that Thor's arrogance had been shattered the moment he had failed to heft Mjolnir from the mud and rock in which it rested, but he was still locked down in despair and self-pity, too lost inside himself to think to call for aide or comfort. In truth, Loki wondered if it would even occur to his proud and protective older brother to call upon his younger brother for that comfort. He'd protested enough when Loki had insisted upon going into Jotunheim with him "to keep you grounded", and now seemed to feel that "placing Loki in harm's way" was yet another rash act he was being punished for.

"How is he, to your eyes?" he asked softly, lowering his hands and phasing back into the mortal plane beside his youngest son. Clint didn't jerk or start, merely glanced sideways at him with a grim sort of smile.

"Broken," he said succinctly, gesturing with his bow at the partitioned tent where Loki could see Thor's silhouette bound to a chair with Fenrir seated before him. "He doesn't recognize Fen, and Hel says he didn't recognize her, either. I watched him tear through the agents - maybe a quarter of his usual strength now - but all the fight just... went out of him when Mjolnir wouldn't move." He looked up at Loki then, frowning. "...Why didn't it move for him, Dad?"

"The spell which the All-Father has placed upon it," Loki answered, frowning pensively at the silhouettes of his brother and son. "'Whosoever is worthy of the power of Thor shall possess it'."

"That's... kind of vague," Clint said. "When we got here, a whole bunch of locals had set up a party to try and get anyone they could to move it. Nothing worked."

"It would not," Loki agreed, a wry smile touching his lips. "The trick is in the words. Mjolnir is still Thor's hammer, but he must be worthy of his power to wield it once more. The All-Father has sent him here without his powers to learn the lesson he has not learned at home in Asgard."

"What lesson's that, Dad?"

"Humility."


	6. Chapter 6

**T** HOR," Sif began, leaning forward earnestly. "Your father sleeps the Odinsleep, and Lady Frigga directed us... With Laufey's talk of a traitor and your brother's disappearance so soon after your banishment--"

"Loki has vanished?" Thor asked, sitting upright, a coil of dread knotting in his belly. "Can Heimdall not see him?"

"Magic clouds his Sight in many directions," Volstagg rumbled. "Thor--"

"No!" Thor said, barely restraining himself from banging his fist upon the table. "I cannot-- Loki! Brother, answer me!"

"Finally!" he heard Lady Darcy mutter, but he paid her no head as Loki stepped around the girl, clad in Midgardian attire, and approached them.

"Not quite the prayer of a child, but I will take what I can get," Loki said, wrapping Thor in a tight embrace. "The All-Father forbid us to follow you, but he did not restrict me from answering the prayers of my charges."

"Thor is no child!" Sif growled, affronted.

"The flare through my magic when Father stripped his powers from him says otherwise," Loki snapped at her, then pressed his lips together. "Not the point. I have many charges here on Midgard, and several have been calling to me, including my own children. If I was not in Asgard, it was with the assurance that Mother holds the throne in trust and you four were there to be her defenders should the traitor show himself."

"By the All-Father," Fandral gasped, exchanging a glance with Hogun. "Bylin, the servant--"

"He spoke of rumors that you were born a Jotun," Hogun said quietly.

"No doubt an agent of Laufey and Farbauti in disguise," Loki said grimly. "While I was indeed born a Jotun runt, my loyalty is to Asgard, and to my chosen family."

"I have never doubted you, brother," Thor said, gripping his shoulder, and Loki smiled faintly before the expression fell away.

"Nevertheless, you have been tricked into leaving Asgard without all six of her strongest warrior-defenders,":Loki said grimly.

"We shall call--" Fandral began, only to be interrupted by the Lady Darcy as she cursed.

"Bloody buggering fuck," she growled, looking up. "Mom, Fen says we've got company of the big, bad and blue variety!"

"Lady... Darcy?" Thor blinked, stunned, but Loki had leapt to his feet, eyes wide.

"The mortals... Hela, are the agents--?"

"Staying clear and laying down fire, but humans aren't prepared for frost giants," she said grimly. Abruptly, she seemed to realize whom she was speaking so candidly in front of and flushed, waving slightly. "Er, hi, guys... long time no see?"

"There will be time for this later," Loki said, looking to Sif and the Warriors Three. "I can reach Asgard faster than Heimdall can open the bifrost. Will you stay and aid Thor and my children in defending the mortals here?"

"Of course," Sif said, her face falling into solemn lines, shoulders straight and light as if a weight were lifted. "Go and protect the Queen."

"Yggdrasil preserve you," Loki said, clasping her forearm before stepping back and disappearing with a crack and rush of displaced air. Darcy - _Hela_ \- made a face.

"He still can't factor air displacement when he's panicked," she said. Ignoring the stunned glances from the others, notably from Jane, she jumped down and started for the door. "Come on, people! Let's go be heroes!"

 

**L** OKI APPEARED IN THE ROOM DIRECTLY OUTSIDE WHERE HIS FATHER LAY, still and shielded in the stasis of Odinsleep. He could hear the scuffle from within and for a moment he was back again, another life ago, but this time it was not his hand to open the gates to Jotunheim and that left him cold with dread. He slipped into the room, silent as a shadow, and caught his mother's eye, creeping to her to take hold of Gungnir. With a silent prayer, he lunged forward, thrusting the spear through Laufey's chest before the Jotun King could strike Odin with his blade.

"Loki!" Frigga cried, flying into his arms, and he dropped Gungnir to catch her, throat tight and body trembling with the knowledge that this, too, was Destined, and his heart ached.

"It is not yet over," Loki said, voice low. "Jotuns march upon Midgard, and there is still a traitor in our house. If magic has clouded Heimdall's sight as Volstagg said, then I must go to him."

"Go, my son," Frigga whispered, tightening her embrace before releasing him. "You are truly a Prince of Asgard."

Loki bit back the urge to answer that he was not, could not be a _Prince_ of Asgard despite being acknowledged as her son, and slipped out the door again, moving swiftly and silently through the halls until he reached the bifrost, casting a shadow forward and flinging himself into it only to draw up short in horror at the sight of Heimdall, arm still upraised in attack, encased in ice. "No..."

"Oh, yes," a voice purred from behind him. Loki whirled, eyes widening at the sight of Bylin... no, he may have been called Bylin once, but the figure before him was much taller, with burning red eyes set in a cold blue countenance, a sharp-toothed grin splitting his face. "Hello, _little brother_ ," Byleister said nastily, hefting the Cask of Ancient Winters before him. "We seem to be overdue for a discussion on family loyalty."


End file.
